


no strings

by starlightwalking



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fire, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Necromancy, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 18:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13416624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: Kravitz has seen Taako at his highest and his lowest. This time, Taako returns the favor.





	no strings

**Author's Note:**

> for an anon on tumblr!  
> prompt: “There is nothing you could do to make me love you any less. Okay? My love doesn’t come with strings.”  
> this is my first taz fic but definitely not my last!! :)

Taako and Kravitz have been through a lot. Actually, "a lot" doesn't even begin to describe it. More like "literally almost everything".

From awkward dates to the actual apocalypse, Taako's seen it all. Kravitz has been there for quite a bit of it, by now, and seen sides of Taako he's not proud of, parts of him he never wanted anyone to know about. He's seen Taako at his highest and lowest, and sometimes Taako doesn't feel like he's earned the kind of love Kravitz is giving him.

This, though, isn't quite one of those times.

It's after a particularly dangerous mission, so dangerous that Kravitz and Lup and Barry Bleeping Bluejeans invited him along. The four of them are the best goddamn team in the planar system, with IPRE coming in as a close second and Team Sweet Flips third, and the creepy necromantic cult is sure to be taken care of in no time—but not before Taako gets into a bit of a, uhhhhh, "tough spot".

(Okay, so maybe not the  _best_  team in the planar system.)

Taako gets cornered, and no amount of Magic Missiles and whatever other cool-as-shit wizard spell he can pull out of his ass can get him out. At least, not without some... _casualties_. Kravitz doesn't like killing necromancers willy-nilly; it sorta goes against the whole "Balance Of Life And Death" thing, apparently. (Taako doesn't really get that, but he loves his boyfriend and tries to keep the murder to a minimum.)

"Krav, hun, I could use some help here!" he calls out. He's not freaking out, because after all he Can't Die, but it's a little annoying to be stuck in one spot for so long (this must have been at least ten rounds of combat by now, and he was getting tired of this) and he was running low on spell slots.

Lup and Barold are doing their thing, kicking necromancer booty and reaping trapped souls left and right (and a couple other directions. fuckin' liches.) Kravitz, though, is focused on the leader of the cult.

"Sorry, Taako!" Kravitz calls back. God, he's doing one of his stupid "work accents" again. What an adorable fucking loser. "I'm a bit—" (explosion) "—busy right—" (scream) "—this second!" ("Africa" by Toto playing in the distance)

"Permission to take these suckers out, then?" Taako asks, stabbing the nearest necromancer with the KrebStar. (Non-fatally. For the moment.)

"Permission granted!" Lup hollers.

"I'm in charge here!" Kravitz channels all his mystic powers and finally just wipes the floor with the cult leader. Flames light up the night, and for just a moment his skeletal form flickers into the smokin' hot reaper bod Taako knows and loves.

That's when they get him.

Taako falls back and swears loudly. Of-fucking-course this happens now. What an inconvenience—and all this blood is going to  _ruin_  his new skirt.

And suddenly there are flames everywhere, Kravitz's and Lup's and Barry's and Taako would be consumed by them if it weren't for his last spell slot as he throws up a Fire Shield and only takes half damage. (He mastered that one a long time ago, before even the IPRE—Lup's spells weren't always the best in the beginning and there's  _no_  way he's getting his hair all burnt off every time she screws up.)

He's down pretty low on hit points, and it sucks that this team doesn't have a healer (not that Merle would do much if he were there), but with the necromancers taken care of, Taako is pretty certain he'll be totes magotes fine.

Lup and Barry are right as his side, Lup casting a quick minor healing spell (she knew a few those for fire damage—it was only practical considering her specialty) and Barry rambling apologies.

"I am fine, my dudes," Taako says through a cough. "Just— _chhhhuuu-uhhhhchk_ —smokin' hot."

Kravitz isn't there. Taako tries to sit up, wincing as he feels his burned hands protest as he puts pressure on them. "Krav? Babe?"

"He's reaping souls," Barry explains. "He's got to get those necromancers into the Eternal Stockade, and the other ones back in the Sea where they belong."

"He...left?" Taako's huff of displeasure turns into another racking cough. "Ah, shit. Whatever."

"You're going home," Lup says. "You  _idiot_. Why didn't you—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I'll hear all about it," Taako says, and then lets himself pass out.

* * *

He wakes up fully healed and rested, alone in the bed he and Kravitz share. He stretches, feeling better than he has in a hot minute, and then immediately wonders where the hell that boyfriend of his has gone.

Taako's a little bit pissed, but he gets it. Duty calls and all that. Doesn't mean he's not annoyed, but he's not gonna take it out on Kravitz. Right now, all he wants is a kiss or something sappy like that.

He stumbles out of bed and over into their living room, still in whatever pajamas Lup had shoved him into after healing. There's a select group of people who get to see him in PJs, and Kravitz happens to be one of them.

He smells something burning. Oh god, was Kravitz trying to cook again?

"Babe, you didn't have to," he drawls, but stops short when he sees what Kravitz is actually doing.

Kravitz has a flame conjured in his hand, holding it up to the cult leader's eyes. There's a look of fury and hate on his face—his actual face, not the skull—that Taako's never seen before.

"I know that he survived," Kravitz growls, "but you  _never_  should have touched him."

"It—it wasn't me!" the cult leader babbles. "It was, it was—"

"Krav, what the shit?" Taako says.

Kravitz whirls around with guilt shining in his black eyes. "Taako?"

"What are you doing?" Taako doesn't have the KrebStar on him, but he doesn't need a staff to look threatening. He glares at his boyfriend. "Didn't you lock this dude up?"

"I..." Kravitz looks between his prey and his boyfriend. His face flashes white; the skull is back. He turns to the cult leader and growls, "This isn't over!" then tosses the poor dude into a quickly-conjured portal to the Astral Plane.

Taako folds his arms. The scary look hadn't been for the cult leader at all. "Kravitz, what the hell is going on?"

Kravitz falls apart. All his masks come down, and suddenly he looks like one of Magnus's puppies that knows he's taken a shit in the wrong place. "I'm just...I gave the other ones back to the Raven Queen, but I just had to... god, Taako, I was so  _worried_  about you!"

"Babe. Dude. Bruh." Taako shook his head. "Isn't that breaking your own code or something? You were about to smoke that guy's face off!"

"I couldn't do it with you watching," Kravitz admits. "I just—goddamnit, Taako, I  _left_  you, all burnt up because of  _me_ , and you—you just—I couldn't let him get away with that! What if you—what if you didn't forgive me for that? What if you—"

Taako sighs and uncrosses his arms. He opens his arms and lets Kravitz fall into them. Usually, he prefers to be held, but not this time. This time is different.

"Krav, if you can forgive me for every awful terrible disgusting thing I've done in the years you've known me, and the century I spent letting entire planes just rot, I think I can get over this one little mistake." He stroked Kravitz's hair, feeling the intricate braids he's watched him take care of so precisely.

"But I...I left you," Kravitz whispered.

"You had to do your goddamn job. Besides, I had Lup and Barold to help me out." Taako poked Kravitz's head lightly. "There is nothing you could do to make me love you any less. Okay?"

"What?" Kravitz says.

Taako scowls. He's not good at all this mushy stuff. "You heard me. My love doesn't come with strings, babe. You've been here for me over and over, and even if you leave me hangin' every now and then, I'll be there for you too."

Kravitz buries his head into Taako's chest. "I'm sorry."

" 'S okay," Taako murmurs. " 'S okay. I love ya forever."

"Love you too," Kravitz says, and Taako knows that it's all gonna be okay.


End file.
